1. Field of the Invention.
This invention relates generally to data transmission methods and apparatus and more particularly to methods for distributing data files over a wide area network such as the World Wide Web using audience equipment as retransmission sites.
2. Description of the Prior Art.
Media broadcasts over the Internet come in two broad categories: Live, and On-Demand. The present invention is directed mainly to overcome the obstacles faced by providers of Live Internet broadcasts.
Delivering live broadcasts over the Internet requires very high capacity servers. Not only are media streams greedy consumers of bandwidth individually, every member of the audience requires a separate stream to be uploaded from the host, placing increasing demands on the server. Host servers must be capable of delivering massive amounts of data directly to the backbone of the Internet. A popular radio station may spend thousands of dollars per month in bandwidth and server costs in order to be available on demand to a sufficient audience. Without banks of high-capacity servers, live broadcasters have to limit the size of their Internet audiences or allow their audiences to experience quality problems including interruptions of service.
This means that live broadcasts over the Internet, though popular, are problematic and expensive to deliver. Meanwhile other methods of Internet media delivery have benefited from recent dramatic advances in technology. For example, using a program or a service like Gnutella, Napster, or Scour with a broadband Internet connection, you can find and download a song in perfect stereo in less time than it takes to listen to it. The need remains for a method to bring live broadcasts to the advanced level of other media distribution methods.